Important Holiday Event News for PokemonGo Players!
You Have Increased Odds of Capturing Pikachu with a Christmas Hat Right Now | Between Christmas & New Years
Capturing Pikachu With a Christmas Hat Isn’t Easy!
We’re on vacation for Xmas…on a Caribbean cruise with Royal Caribbean. I don’t know for sure that it’s easier to catch Pikachu with a Christmas hat right now…but I haven’t seen him until Christmas Day. And I finally did catch him too…on Christmas Day…although it wasn’t easy! I spotted him on the island of St. John’s near the ferry shuttle to St. Thomas. He broke free from 2 regular Pokeballs so I switched to Ultraballs…where he broke free 6 more times before I caught him! So he broke free eight times total!
Below is my screenshot right before I caught him…I took it just in case he ran away!
Two Days Later
Pikachu With a Christmas Hat Will Be Gone Very Soon!
We visited the island of Aruba. Twice I encountered Pikachu with a Christmas hat…and twice I attempted to catch him…but failed. In both cases he had a lower CP than the one I captured…only around 110. So I used regular Pokeballs, and caught him within one or 2 throws. But both times he broke free and then instantly ran away.
Pikachu Capture Tips
- Look for him near active, or busy Pokestops
- He appears more frequently right after egg hatchings
- Use a Raspberry and a Great Ball or Ultra Ball if you have them to insure he doesn’t escape once captured.
- My best advice is to use the strongest weapons in your arsenal immediately…if you don’t you risk wasting Pokeballs and his running away.
- Try to get out find him now and before New Year’s Eve…in fact originally Niantics said he’d only be around through December 29th.
New Years Eve Pikachu with a Christmas Hat was Everywhere!
We were flying home from our Caribbean Cruise on New Year’s Eve. I caught 2 Pikachu’s with Christmas hats at the Orlando Florida airport within a matter of minutes after arriving there. He continued to appear randomly every time I opened the PokemonGo app on my iPhone. Even once we arrived home! I noticed Pikachu appeared under the revamped wild Pokémon near me tool as I was shutting down background apps before plugging my phone into its charger.
On Christmas Niantics Began Selling Gift Boxes via the Shop Menu in PokemonGo Apps
This Post Examines One Gift Box Alternative to Determine if the Cost Savings of All Items In It Make This Box a Good Deal
All 3 Christmas Gift Boxes are shown in the screenshot below. I’ll be examining the most expensive gift box…the Ultra Box offered for 1500 Poke Coins.
Ultra Gift Box Item Costs Analysis
The screen shot above shows the 3 Gift Box alternatives. As you can see the prices range from 250 Poke Coins to 1500.
We need to know what’s in the Boxes fist to make any calculations. Below is what Niantics has to say about their ‘Box’ offerings.
Unfortunately they don’t tell us exactly what is in each box. So I found someone who does.
Here’s a link to ToneDeaf’s post in GameFAQ’s.
Based on ToneDeaf’s post above here are my calculations:
The prices for the various items in the Ultra Box are shown below.
Cost of incense, lures and incubators
Cost of Pokeballs & coins
Conclusion
In the case of the Ultra Box, it makes economic sense to get the box if you would have have purchased incense and egg incubators anyway. If not, well then Tone Deaf’s conclusion does make some sense. The one thing I would add however, is that while his statement is true that ‘finding Pokémon is now easier’ and there are more and better types of Wild Pokémon available more often right now…incense use isn’t completely a wasted effort. It depends a lot on where you live and how readily wild Pokemon are available to you. In less populated areas incense can still help out a lot. I know because I’ve tried it.
Also, in certain situations where you’re trying to maximize the amount of XP you earn…like when you follow up Pidgey spamming with a lot of evolutions and power ups, all while under the increased benefits of a lucky egg. Using incense can and does make sense if you can’t fill the entire 30 minute period of time the Luckey egg gives you with evolutions. Because catching Pokémon under the magical effects of a lucky egg also doubles (or sometimes even quadruple’s) the XP you earn.
During the time period of December 30th to January 8th, Lure modules active time will be doubled…from 30 minutes to 60. So it’s quite possible that using Lures and incense together will reap enough additional benefits to make incense use beneficial.
During this same timeframe, once the sale ends for the Christmas Gift Boxes, Niantic’s plans to offer additional deals in the form of newer gift boxes with different deals.
Great Balls & Ultra Balls Can Never Be Purchased Normally
The last point making these gift box deals worthwhile is the fact that most include Great Balls or Ultra Balls which are never available for purchase in the item store normally. Since use of these higher powered balls seems mandatory for capturing Pikachu with a Christmas hat…if you’re not at the level where you earn these balls at Pokestops, this is your only opportunity to get these stronger pokeballs.
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